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May 24, 2010 10:34 PM UTC

So, About That Palin Endorsement...

  • 35 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

You all remember what the Denver Post’s Allison Sherry wrote a week ago:

GOP Senate hopeful Ken Buck said Monday he thought it would be “rude” for Sarah Palin to steal the limelight from the state GOP assembly when she comes to Denver for a talk Saturday evening, where she is rumored to be officially endorsing his opponent Jane Norton. [Pols emphasis]

The word that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was going to endorse Jane Norton–on the day of the GOP state convention Norton had earlier abandoned–spread far and wide after Palin’s visit to Colorado was announced. And that wasn’t an accident: sources close to Norton’s campaign were by all accounts the ones spreading the rumor. And then at some point late last week…that began to change.

So what happened between then and Saturday evening? The Colorado Independent reports:

Palin was expected to endorse Norton. She had mentioned Norton at an event in Washington earlier in the week and, because Norton opted not to participate in the state’s GOP delegate assembly Saturday, the timing of the Palin speech suggested some coordination with the Norton campaign. An endorsement Saturday night at the event in Denver would have diluted the power of the victory Buck won at the assembly in Loveland earlier in the day. Indeed, Buck was perhaps the star of the show at the assembly, winning a whopping 76 percent of the delegate votes and the confidence of activist voters who had packed into the Budweiser Center from all over the state. The absent Palin endorsement in Denver leaves Norton with nothing to take from the GOPs biggest political weekend of the year, her candidacy now clearly struggling.

Norton reportedly met with Palin earlier in the day and sat in the middle of the third row in front of the stage at the Magness Center. But Palin didn’t acknowledge Norton, or Buck, who was also in attendance, or any other state politicians.

The emerging story as we understand it is pretty simple: Palin was fully prepared to come to Colorado Saturday and spike Ken Buck’s momentum coming out of the state convention by endorsing Norton. But just like we saw with the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee getting burned for trying to clear the field for Norton last fall, even Sarah Palin’s mythological status on the right was not enough to keep her above reproach from local conservatives flocking to Ken Buck’s standard–in fact, Palin’s endorsement of Norton was becoming more likely to harm Palin’s own credibility with the local and national “Tea Party” movement than anything else, as other less-conservative primary endorsements by Palin have recently done.

And just like that, the punch was pulled. The new rumor is that an endorsement of Norton by Palin is still likely at a less pressurized moment, and if that’s true still might prove a net positive for Norton with conservatives she must back from Buck by August: but it’s increasingly clear that this trip to Colorado didn’t work out the way Palin (or Norton) wanted.

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35 thoughts on “So, About That Palin Endorsement…”

  1. The disinformation re: Palin was a BIG MISTAKE, and yes they were burned and they deserved to get burned. Ken Buck handled it with class and forced Palin to reconsider what she was doing plain and simple!!

    HEY JOSH, want to make sure Jane loses? Keep it up!!

    1. … so you should definitely blast the other side for misinfo about a Palin enforsement!! And definitely use sentences ending with multiple exclamation points because you, GOPwarrior, definitely have the moral high ground when it comes to misinfo re a Palin endorsement in Colorado’s GOP Senate primary!!

    2. decided endorsing the establishment candidate over the tea party candidate one time too many and in such quick succession might harm her brand and that’s all she cares about: Promoting and selling Sarah Palin.  

      She couldn’t care less about the GOP or the tea party or the people of Alaska where she ditched her job for a more profitable one or the common good of the nation as a whole. Probably thinks the common good and all that of the people by the people for the people stuff is commie agit-prop.  She’s just a flim flam artist out to stay famous and make lots of money. How much more obvious does she have to get?

          1. Don’t you ever attack Palin on a legitimate issue? Why do you always just call her stupid and talk about how HORRIBLE it is that she can rock tight pants?

            I think what Ann Coulter says about how pretty girls are conservative and happy, and liberal girls are ugly and hate everything makes a lot of sense, especially when I read this blog and your hatred and fear of Palin that’s so intense you can’t even put it into words.

            What do you think of that, RedPink?

        3. She walked from her sworn job as governor when she figured out she could make more money whipping up the crowds.

          Wow, there’s a role model for ya.

          Well, for you, probably.  Not so much the rest of us who actually practice and admire, you know, responsibility, commitment, and duty.  

        4. Palin is demonstrably as selfish as she is ignorant.  She wouldn’t know a legitimate issue if she could see one in Russia from her house. Her ignorance has been well documented and her ditching her duties as Governor and endorsing establishment candidates while giving lip service to being the great maverick and raking in the big bucks in that role are very clear indications of her real priorities.  She is no different than the Big Fat Idiot. It’s all about the paycheck.  

          Republicans who claim to take her seriously as an authority on anything besides self promotion are either dancing as fast as they can to keep the pandering to the base going or are delusional. Having tied yourselves to this silly huckster I think the GOP has more reason to be scared of her than Dems do.

          She’s showing signs of wearing a littlethin outside the  shrinking reliable base who will always adore her and be enough to keep her rich no matter how much damage she does to the conservative cause. In fact, people like her and Beck and Rush, etc. do best when the GOP is out of power and they can rail against the “enemy” government in the most completely over the top profitable way.  If their antics cause losses for conservatives that just puts more money in their pockets as the foaming at the mouth opposition their target audience loves.  You’re being played.  

    3. GOP:

      My sense is that Palin had agreed to endorse Norton and that was without anyone from Norton’s team being honest with her about the timing implications.  When some of the conservative types like Redstate who support Buck and are working with Palin on other campaigns told her about the timing, she backed off.

      Lying to people like Josh and Jane do routinely is not a foundation upon which to build anything. I would think that sincere people who work for Norton will soon be falling by the wayside.  

      Whether Palin still feels compelled to payback Charlie Black and his sister in law, and ultimately does endorse Palin only time will tell.  I think Palin, if anything, is going to be more careful with potential endorsements in primaries.

  2. the Palin speech was scheduled something like six months ago (check with DU when the arena was reserved), long before Norton decided to skip the assembly, so it’s not like the thing was designed to upstage Buck. Whether the Norton campaign sought to take advantage of the timing is a good question, and whether the “rude” story quashed those plans is another one, but the timing of the speech didn’t “suggest” anything in this case.

    3. At the end of the day, Norton’s still going to get the Palin endorsement; I don’t think any of us are willing to believe otherwise.

      2. Whoever Palin endorses is up to her.  If Palin continues to endorse liberals, however, she is going to quickly lose her charm.  

        Had she endorsed Saturday, it would have been a dirty blow to the grass roots delegates.  She figured that out.

  4. Just about as relevant.

    Why people are so interested in an endorsement from an incoherent quitter – a less-than-one-term former governor – is beyond me.

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